Amid a probe into the Ashok Kharat case, the Nashik police in Maharashtra have registered an FIR against another self-proclaimed godman for alleged sexual exploitation of a 28-year-old woman.
While the alleged crimes took place in 2024, the woman mustered courage after activists from the anti-superstition Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (ANS) counselled her. The woman filed a complaint on Wednesday against Maheshgiri alias Mahesh Dilip Kakde (31), an official said.
As per the complaint, the woman was facing some problems in her personal life, and her parents took her to a mutt known as ‘Prati Gangapur’ at Dharangaon (Khadak) village near Lasalgaon.
Maheshgiri alias Mahesh Dilip Kakde, who claimed to have divine powers, allegedly told them that she had been affected by ‘Karni' (black magic) and asked them to perform certain rituals, the official said on Thursday.
Later, he started sending obscene messages to the woman, took her to a lodge in Nashik city and exploited her sexually, as per the complaint.
Kakde also allegedly clicked her objectionable photographs and threatened her with dire consequences in case she complained against him, the woman told police.
After ANS activists gave her courage, the woman approached the police, the official said.
A case of alleged rape and offences under the Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Act, 2013, was registered against Kakde late Wednesday night at Lasalgaon police station, and further investigation was on, the official said.
Ashok Kharat, a self-proclaimed godman who ran a temple in Sinnar tehsil and was visited by several Maharashtra politicians over the years, was arrested in a rape case last month. He has since been accused of sexually assaulting several women and indulging in large-scale financial fraud by claiming to have divine powers and knowledge of black magic.
